Last month, President Asif Ali Zardari
announced a Rs46.60 billion development package for Balochistan and directed the
provincial government to set up a parliamentary committee of its coalition
partners to start talks with disgruntled Baloch youth to bring them into the
political mainstream. Announcement of financial packages or constitution of
Parliamentary committees will not work, as time calls for practical steps to
appease the local people. One should recognize the fact that no economic
activity can smoothly take place in the restive province. Law and order problem
has already raised security concerns among foreign firms working in the
province.

Balochistan crisis embraces economics,
social and political dimensions. What has actually happened with the province is
that the centre ever launched state's version of development of its resources
that turned out to be a matter of threat and survival for the local people who
own them. A simmering insurgency has continued in the province over the last
three decades. But, since the early 1970s there had been no open armed conflict
between the government and the Baloch tribes, says a report of the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) released in 2006. In early 2000, tension rose but
in the beginning of 2005, it boiled over.

A realistic approach needs to be
adopted to address the local people's grievances and to end conflict in the
province. It is about state's version of development of province's resources
that aggravated the feeling of deprivation. It is about sense of ownership and
development needs of the province. It is about discriminatory policies that led
to alienation of local people from national mainstream. It is about transferring
the subjects on the concurrent list to the province. It is about politics of
keeping the province least developed and its people most backward. What has
actually alienated the local people is the over-centralism, unitary type of
governance and arbitrary nature of decision-making practiced under the state's
version of development.

The province has genuine reservations
about state's version of development that ever ignored the local demands and
needs. For instance, the province's natural resources will have no impact on
development if it is not matched with human resources that can tap this natural
endowment. Local people need technical institutions, as they are technologically
backward. Infrastructure and human development must go together.

The development of human resources
should be the priority area for the development planners. The analysis of
investments in health and education is unified in human capital approach. The
human capital approach focuses on the indirect ability of education and health
to increase utility by increasing incomes. The development of human resources is
essential to raise labor efficiency and revolutionize the social attitudes and
institutions in the province.

The state's version of development
failed to create a sense of ownership among the local people that alienated them
from the development process. The development denotes change; a change in
people's social behavior, political approach and economic growth. So far the
development process started under previous regimes in Islamabad could not bring
a positive change in socio-economic and political milieu of Balochistan.

Had the recommendations of the
Parliamentary committee been implemented by the former government, they would
have defused the uncertain situation to a great extent in the province. The
committee had prepared a total of 31 recommendations for the betterment of the
province, assuaging grievances and complaints of its leaders. It had also
adopted the recommendation for paying the gas and petroleum royalty to the areas
from where they were extracted and for giving the people of Balochistan
representation in the board of directors of the Oil and Gas Development Company
and the Sui Southern Gas Company. It had also recommended constitutional changes
for giving greater provincial autonomy to Balochistan. Ironically, a military
operation was launched for the fifth time instead of implementing the
recommendations of the committee.

On economic front, the former
government had increased allocation of funds for the development of the province
by 300 percent in the federal budget for FY 2003-2004. But unfortunately, it
could not do well on political side. It showed lack of political acumen and
statesmanship to comprehend and resolve the political issues that emerged out
after execution of mega projects in the province.

The military operation brought nothing
but more destruction to the province. It caused the death of veteran Baloch
leader Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and further intensified the feelings of alienation
and frustration among the local people. Ironically, the establishment preferred
to bear higher costs of military operation in terms of collateral damage,
destruction of infrastructure and maintaining law and order, but it did not
seriously opted and strived for political solution of Balochistan crisis. One
may wonder that the establishment can talk with India or Israel, but not with
Baloch, who are the citizens of Pakistan and equally respectable like other
citizens in Islamabad, Lahore, Gujrat or other cities.

For the present government, developing
political reconciliation among different political parties and bringing
nationalists into mainstream politics would be the biggest challenge in order to
continue the development process in the province. The political unrest in
Balochistan has once again highlighted the issue of provincial autonomy, which
is about transferring the subjects on the concurrent list to the provinces.
Instead of wasting time on constitution of another committee, the government
should implement the recommendations of the parliamentary committee, set up
under the caretaker premiership of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain in order to defuse
the prevailing uncertain situation in the province.

A sense of ownership needs to be
created among the local people making them directly responsible for the security
of development projects and vital public installations. There is a need to
constitute a commission comprising civilian experts in development, psychology,
sociology, political science and regional strategy with a task to reassess the
situation in Balochistan on the basis of demands of nationalist forces,
academicians and senior Baloch bureaucrats. Political stability is linked to the
economic activity in the province. The future of Pakistan lies in a politically
stable, economically developed, and socially open Balochistan. The development
of the province's vast resources in key economic sectors and its geo-strategic
location can bring an economic bonanza for the country.